Cultivation Begin

Back in school students were all looking despondent and angry and so were the teachers. The selection rates effected their bonuses as well. Max could already see signs that large scale protests were going to occur by students, parents and teachers across the federation once the thick rumors were actually officiated. The fact that the Federation was announcing this at the very last moment hadn't done them any favors either. Many schools around the Federation had stopped all theory lessons to focus only on cultivation, the training rooms were opened up and cultivation rooms were made available as well.

Max ignored the despondent atmosphere enveloping his school and walked directly to the cultivation room and occupied one of the few empty ones. Thanks to his scholarship he had the permission to use this otherwise expensive rooms for free. Sitting on the mat in the center of the brightly lit white walled room, Max could feel the dense energy in the air as opposed to the extremely thin density on the outside. Establishing a lotus position, Max began to replicate the cultivation tactic he had just learned from start to finish in a slow and organized fashion.

The motions were difficult to perform and he had to keep his concentration vigilant at all times to make sure he did not deviate from the assigned path. Once cycle after the other was slowly performed, forming a complex symmetry of three dimensional pathways within his body until the final twenty fifth cycle was completed. Suddenly the complicated symmetry of energy within Max's body began to converge towards his heart. Coinciding with that conversion, Max suddenly felt a terrible compression all over his body as if a black hole at the center of his heart was pulling all the cells of his body inwards, making them tighter. He felt his body tightening, his chest constricting and his skin threatening to crack. His body was racked with intense pain, but he did not give into it, bearing it when he kept his goal in mind.

Even the rather simple goal of the Academies was no longer his primary motive. It was just a stepping stone towards a more grand journey. Gritting his teeth, Max controlled himself until the pain and the feeling finally stopped. He felt his entire body go weak from the impact of running the tactic just one time. After resting for fifteen minutes, he began performing the tactic once again. The same complicated cycle ensued, leaving him next to breaking point by the time the pain disappeared once again. It was too early to see any effects from this, so he had to continue on.

In such a manner over eight hours passed by. Surprisingly no one came to disturb him or ask him to vacate the cultivation room despite such a long stay. When Max noticed that he was feeling ravenously hungry was the moment when he had a self realization about how much time he'd passed inside the room. Getting up to leave, he immediately felt radically dizzy. Shaking his head, he walked to the cafeteria to eat food while passively checking his stat to see if there was any change post the long session of cultivation.

Suddenly he stopped on his tracks in shock. His physical statistics actually reduced? He asked for it to be tested once again and it indeed had reduced from 4.1 to 3.8. A moment of hesitancy appeared in his eyes as he pondered why this happened. Was he unsuitable to practice this tactic? If there was such a big issue with it then some of the predecessors should have noted it down in the book, however, he had carefully gone through all the different notes and imbibed their experiences before hand, which was why he had been successfully cultivating the tactic. Then, a possibility stuck out to him. He had spent his young adult life practicing the Fundamental Tactics until his physique grew from 1 point to 4.1 points. Perhaps the path that tactic took wasn't pure enough. He remembered the feeling of absolute compression he felt during the cultivation process and his suspicions intensified. He did feel that his body was becoming firmer and tighter, but his foundations were on weak grounds. This Hermes tactic was perhaps strengthening the foundation at the cost of the current cultivation.

"Will my strength drop down to 1 point at this rate?" Max mumbled to himself in worry. However, he decided to trust the old man from the store who had only been good to him and had no reason to harm him and continue cultivating the Hermes tactic.

The school cafeteria was empty as well. Max had a scrumptious meal and even had to take seconds. He realized that his appetite had improved. After having his fill he made his way out of the campus only to discover a huge protest had already gathered together manifesting against new Federation admission requirements. Max quickly accessed his augmented reality to scan the news feed and found that the regulations had actually been made official. The admissions bureau had put out a new list of requirements that included have a strength index of at least 10 points to even be eligible to apply. There were also further announcements on how the admission process for the Federal Academies would be dramatically changed.

There would be the standard high school written exam over a broad range of topics followed by a combat or specialized niche field tests performed through a Virtual Reality system. Those who do well in those tests would be invited for a real life trial from which the Federal Academies would choose their pick of students as the next year admits.

The reforms were so radical that the vast majority of commoners would never be able to clear these requirements. Max sighed, for he knew that the blowback to this was going to be beyond control. Yet, the Federation did not make any attempt to address the discontent at all. All the news websites were trying to interpret what the stoic silence of the Federation was supposed to mean.